This section introduces aspects that may be helpful to facilitating a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not the prior art.
Multiferroic materials are the subject of intense research interest. Such materials may be characterized as having a coupled ferroic order parameters. Such coupling may be between, e.g., a ferromagnetic and ferroelectric response. Thus, an applied electric field may influence ferromagnetic polarization of the material, and an applied magnetic field may affect the dielectric polarization. In some cases, mechanical strain may also serve to induce an electrical or magnetic polarization.